on my mind
by Val-Creative
Summary: Something feels off when she first meets Robin during summer in 1984. Kali struggles to find the answers before it's too late.


**.**

**.**

Kali rarely takes the busy intersection and especially in the middle of the day.

She's heading to Mick's contact further downtown, having arranged a meeting. The air in Chicago sticky-hot and windy.

"_Whoa_—!" A girl on the sidewalk stumbles, dropping her bag, after being elbowed by a gentleman in a business-suit. "_Dirtbag_!" she yells, kneeling down for the rainbow-colorful markers spilling into the open.

One of the indigo-purple markers rolls against Kali's boot.

"—_take the shortcut, my ass_—"

"There's no such thing as shortcuts around here. Unless you know where to look," Kali informs her quietly, presenting out the marker to the other girl and smiling close-lipped. She crouches down. "Are you alright?"

A flash of pink brightens freckled cheeks.

"Y-yeah."

Kali examines her, from the denim jean-jacket and hot pink hose, to her curled dirty blonde hair and jean short-skirt and stack of gold necklaces dangling over her white-tee and pink plaid button-up. Very cute. Young. Innocent. "Where are you heading?"

"I'm—"

_"Robin, sweetie! C'mon!"_

Two grown adults with dirty blonde hair wave in the distance, and Robin waves back with an embarrassed grimace. "I'm with my parents right now," Robin mutters, but smiles back to Kali. "Do you know that antique place off of East 9th Street?"

She nods.

"Good!" Robin declares, too-loudly, flushing harder. "We'll be there around 8—if you're gonna be, uhm, gonna be there—"

Out of nowhere, Kali feels her insides churn. The back of her eyes scolding-hot.

"Yes."

**.**

**.**

Something feels off, for a while, but it's not enough to alarm Kali.

She greets Robin by the entrance-way, when skies dark above the towering city buildings and everything else lights up below with neon-glow signs and streetlamps.

Robin's in the same outfit, but her mouth has dark red lipstick caked on. Kali wonders if it tastes as it looks — a _delectable_, dreamy cherry with a smooth, satiny finish. That's when she hears police sirens. An ear-splitting boom. Robin's face crumples up, and she touches shakily over her white-tee, Robin's fingertips dripping dark red. Lipstick-red.

A panicking Kali grabs onto her before Robin's head crashes onto the sidewalk. Too many faces around to know who the gunman was. "Don't move—" Kali's voice then rises, nearly breaking, "Call an ambulance! Someone!"

"_Hurts_," Robin groans, looking more woozy than scared.

"You'll be alright—"

"_What's your name?_"

Her dark eye-makeup runs from the warm, sudden tears. "Kali," she murmurs.

"_Kali_…" Robin echoes softly. "_I don't feel good_."

"You'll be—"

"_I didn't get to kiss you… wanted to_…"

She clutches Robin's bloody fingers. "I could kiss you right now…" Kali replies, forcing a big, toothy grin.

And the police sirens… …

**.**

**.**

… come from outside the alley below, as Kali lets out a low, choking scream, pulling herself violently from her dream.

**.**

**.**

Mick says she'll go talk to her contact as the sun dawns. She walked in on Kali that night, greyed, vomiting into a toilet from the migraine gripping Kali. The premonitions come and go. Involuntary. Kali refuses Mick's request.

"_Whoa_—!" Robin yells, glaring. "—_dirtbag_!"

"—_take the shortcut, my ass_—"

The words try to form on Kali's lips and vanish into nothingness. Robin notices her, brow furrowing.

"What are you staring at?"

Kali's stomach churns. Her eyes burning. "_Sorry_," she mutters, walking past her. "You looked familiar."

"Hey—" Robin calls out, intrigued, turning around when Kali doesn't, "—what's your name!?"

**.**

**.**

She sends Axel to East 9th Street for a bomb scare in an hour, keeping all residents away until tomorrow afternoon.

(_Robin will be alive_.)

Kali shuts her eyes, dragging fingertips over her lips. No longer tasting phantom-blood.

**.**

**.**

* * *

_Stranger Things isn't mine. Requested by anxiouspunk (AO3): "Robin/Kali, I could kiss you right now." OH THIS WENT PLACES. THANK YOU CONNER FOR HELPING ME! AND THANK YOU FOR THE REQUEST! I WOULD NEVER KILL MY LESBIANS! MY SWEET GIRLS! It's fine because Kali will go back to Hawkins, Indiana and to El and then she will run into Robin and both of them will remember each other and keep falling in love and it'll be happy and wonderful. Eeeee!  
_


End file.
